I have been educating myself about Whistler, Vancouver and Seattle and have decided to make a family trip around June 20 for about 10 days

Has anyone here experienced the Intrawest facilities in Whistler? We are new members and want to try it out.

Is this Itenerary OK?

Fly to Vancouver and spend a day there, drive to Whistler and spend 5 days and then drive to Seattle and spend 2 days. Fly back to Dallas from Seattle. (I am hoping my miles will allow me to pick these flights!)

I've read you don't need a car in Whistler and would LOVE to have my kids ride a limo.....can we rent a car in Whistler to drive to Seattle?

I would love to hear itenerary suggestions and things to do from you experts.

THANKS!

Alba

Forgot to say that we are a family of 4 and the kids are 13 and 11.

Alba

Hi Alba - I don't think renting a car in Whistler and driving to Seattle is advisable. You not only would have to pay a considerable fee to drop it off in a different city, but I think dropping off in a different country is even more problematic.

As for 5 days in Whistler and only 1 in Vancouver - what does your family like to do? You might be better to stay another day or two in Vancouver (lots to do here!) and shorten the stay in Whistler.

You don't really need a car within the village of Whistler but maybe you'd want to drive to some sights outside the village. (??)

You could consider taking the Amtrak train between Vancouver and Seattle rather than renting a car, and taking the bus between Vancouver and Whistler.

We like to see new places...Whistler seems to be for the outdoors so we will do horses, bikes, hiking and maybe rent canoes or something.

What should we do in Vancouver?....I've read about Stanley park and then shooping and eating......

If we want to go to Seattle from Whistler, what is the best way?

THANKS

Alba

The "best" way, for me, would be to drive between Whistler and Seattle, (but I have a car and would be returning to Vancouver). You're going one way Whistler-Seattle.

You should look into the car rental situation so that you know whether or not you would be dealing with drop-off fees and whether those would prohibit you from a rental.
Then go from there and either go ahead with the car rental or look into a bus/train combo.

Since you like outdoor stuff you will enjoy Whistler. You will really only have part of a day to explore Vancouver because time will be eaten up dealing with arrival and departure.
Some other things to do here are Grouse Mountain, Capilano Suspension Bridge(on the north shore), Granville Island, Science World, Storyum. In part of a day you could explore Stanley Park.

You might consider alluradirect.com for Whistler condo rentals. The prices are much less than Intrawest and offer more space.

You'd probably be better renting round trip Vancouver, then dropping the car at Vancouver and getting a one-way Vancouver-Seattle. Whistler rentals are notoriously expensive for one ways.